that remained unmoved before her, would have brought forth a stream of tears and kisses, loving words and tenderest tones, all, in short, that was finest and sweetest in a heart that had itself been wrung.

But the fountain was frozen even as it welled up within. With lips only a shade paler than was their wont, and without other trace of emotion, Miss Newbattle rejoined coldly, "You are very foolish to excite yourself thus: you know so little, and have seen so little of the world, that you ought to be more guarded. People who have been more in society would be a great deal more cautious about taking up such absurd misapprehensions."

"Misapprehensions! It is no misapprehension."

"So you think; but I am of a different opinion, and I have at least as good a right to judge as you. Most people, indeed, would think that my opinion was the more valuable of the two, considering that I have had some little experience --why, my dear Kate," she broke off, scornfully, "if it were not so absurd an idea from beginning to end, I could prove to you in a dozen ways that you are under a mistake. There was that affair between Mr Pollaxfen and Captain Defour

"But I can assure you that was not the only one. He was constantly making people jealous; for-although perhaps I should not say it-I was very much admired, and all kinds of men wanted to be introduced. And the girls were just as anxious to know Mr Pollaxfen. It was quite his own fault that he knew so few people; he often told me so. It was only when I went, that he cared to go to the assemblies and other things. He devoted himself to me wherever I was at Brighton

"Has he devoted himself to you since he came to Carnochan?"

"That is different. That he wishes to be on, friendly terms with all my people, is one of the clearest proofs of his having a-a- -you really ought not to press me like this. It is not delicate. I do not like to say all I feel on such a matter. It is to me as plain as possible that poor Mr Pollaxfen has been guilty of the unpardonable offence of being civil to you for my sake, and you, with your unsophisticated ideas, have taken it amiss; and now, because I happen to keep my senses, and decline to participate in this

frenzy, you are indignant with me;"-for Kate had turned

away.

"I am not indignant,” she answered, sorrowfully. "How could I be? It is you who may well be indignant with me,

"What does it matter? In either case it is nonsense, and the less said about it the better. I am not angry with you, although as you say yourself-I might very well have been; but you must really drive such a notion out of your head as quickly as you can.'

"If I can, I will."

"That is right,—that is the best way. It never does to harbour fancies. As Lady Olivia says

"But, dear Alice," taking her hand, "you have my promise; will you give me yours? You will not forget my warning; you will watch for yourself, and not allow him to hoodwink you as he has been doing? I mean,"-hastily, as her sister frowned,-"I mean, you will at least find out whether he is hoodwinking you or not? And if you find

that he is

"Pshaw, Kate! I thought we had done with this. Now, you are growing flushed again, and yet you know that you have been warned to avoid excitement of every kind. For your own sake you ought not to work yourself up into a state like this; and it is too ridiculous into the bargain—it is a mistake from beginning to end."

Such was the tone she was firm in taking.

Whether or no to believe in so gross an imposture on Pollaxfen's part, and in such a terrible fall from her own high position, she could not tell, but at least she would affect incredulity. The strain was severe; and she drew a long breath as she passed out of her sister's presence, and sought the solitude of the park, feeling as though she must be alone and unperceived whilst chewing the cud of such bitter meditations. But in the very path which had been chosen for the purpose, whom should she encounter but Pollaxfen himself?

All was changed within a few short minutes.

It appeared that he had actually been on his way to seek her-that during the past half-hour, throughout which he had been alternately denounced and defended overhead, he had been closeted with the father of the combatants in the room beneath, and he had been taking the surest means of

vindicating his character in the eyes of at least one of the two. He had been demanding from Mr Newbattle the hand of his eldest daughter; and poor Mr Newbattle, who had been told that he was to expect this miserable hour from the first day of his guest's arrival, would have been only too thankful to have given him the hands of all four, and have done with the matter, would he but have requested them through the medium of Lady Olivia.

He had never known a minute's peace,—or so he himself thought, since he had had this interview hanging over his head. He had tried every means to evade it, wondered why he needed to be consulted at all, assured his lady that she had full powers from him to accept anybody she liked for any one of the girls, and declared that, between Maxwell and the estate, he had no time to attend to domestic matters.

All such excuses were blandly ignored by his wife, and they finally resolved themselves into hasty retreats out of sight whenever Pollaxfen appeared during the daytime, and unsuccessful attempts at sleep when unavoidably left alone with him after dinner in the evenings.

He had, however, been caught at last, and the thing was done. He went straight to the boudoir to report the terrible business well over, and the accepted suitor made for the park. The rebuff he had received from Kate that afternoon had been such an one as even he could not get over; and with the swiftness of cunning, he had anticipated the disclosure which he had felt convinced must follow. He had seen revelation in her face, and had in his own mind vowed savagely that he would "chuck it down her throat again.” By Jove, he would! He would cause the haughty miss to believe that he had only been amusing himself at her expense, and that she had overstepped the mark in supposing him stricken by her charms.

He would teach her to give herself airs to him, he would. After bothering him off and on for a good three weeks, to dare to turn round upon him like that at the last!

He went straight into the library and sought Alice's father, and Alice met him as narrated, coming subsequently to look for her.

Everything proper was said, and said so effectively, that Kate's testimony went to the winds. It positively must have been the delusion her sister had asserted it to be. She had the evidence of her own senses, and she declined to

receive any other. The only effect of the outbreak was to make her wonder within herself whether Kate could have been quite quite herself when she made it. She had always been fanciful. The excitement of the past three weeks, -and perhaps there had been a little anxiety on her (Alice's) account besides,-might have fixed her mind rather too intently on one point. At any rate, Alice, who inherited her father's love of peace and easy humour, resolved to forget what it was awkward to remember, and to keep in the background of her own memory what she could benefit nobody by communicating to others. She did not, as will be seen, adhere subsequently to so wise a resolution, but at the first the only mild triumph she permitted herself was conveyed in asides, such as this: "You see, my dear Kate, you were a ninny after all, though you meant it for the best. You should really be a little less vehement and less positive in your assertions. Be more circumspect when you go into the world, Kate, or you will get into scrapes, I can tell you. Now, just fancy if I had taken up what you said, and had gone off to Harold,"—Harold was Mr Pollaxfen's Christian name,- "and had confronted him with your report! He would have thought me mad! He cannot bear flighty and quarrelsome people. And do you know what he told me today?—that he must own he had seen from the first that you were a young lady to beware of. Those were his very words. He was quite afraid of you, he declares; for you seemed to him to have such a cross, forbidding, old-maidish look. You must have put it on when you took that fancy into your head, you know; and by the way, that reminds me that I meant to tell you how entirely your conjectures must have been groundless from the very first, for he says himself that if there is one thing in the whole world he detests more than another, it is a blue-stocking!"

CHAPTER XXI.

WOULD EVELYN COME?

"That name for ever dread, yet ever dear,
E'en in his absence I pronounce with fear."
-POPE.

Now that Pollaxfen had actually spoken, he was restored to Lady Olivia's favour: his dirty boots were permitted to rest upon her velvet footstool, without being the subject of reproachful glances, ill-concealed; and he might yawn when he pleased.

He had done his part and fulfilled his contract: accordingly, he had established a claim to forbearance, which, however slovenly, ill-bred, and upsetting he might be, was not to be set aside.

Alice, my love," she could now say, "we must begin at once. We cannot be too methodical; these matters should all be done systematically. Your own relations and your father's old friends, he and Kate must take in hand-it is not de rigueur for you to have anything to do with the announcements: as to people generally, I will see that no one is neglected. Then we must get to the trousseau as quickly as possible."

This was enough to condone the gravest errors. The man who had put it in her power to say this, might have been pardoned for walking knee-deep in mud, and laying his feet on her ladyship's own lap afterwards, had he so chosen. Everybody felt the same.

The dessert after dinner, which had perceptibly waned. after the first ten days of Mr Pollaxfen's stay-and which, in the sombre stagnation of the past week, had been reduced to two bald dishes of oranges and biscuits, without even the addition of any pretty little glasses of bon-bons to fill up the interstices-now blazed up afresh. The footmen, who, on divers pretexts, had shirked their best liveries during the cold March winds, resumed them with scrupulous punctuality.

Mademoiselle reappeared in the evenings.

She had found these so insupportably dull of late, that the company below, sitting in different quarters of the great